An explorative trip to the City of Contrasts

A short trip during the summer vacation definitely is something that energizes your mind and fills it with some positive power. This vacation, being the longest in the history of my school life, we made a week long trip to Delhi. Despite burning at 46 degrees, I could enjoy Delhi in all its beauty. The sun was overhead and it felt like standing inside an oven, there was dust and the air wasn’t as clean as it is back here. But Delhi was a fun and enlightening place to be in.

             

                    To experience the history that I’ve only learnt in textbooks was something that made my heart leap in joy. To walk past those same buildings and streets through which the Mughals and the rulers of the Sultanate walked past, literally gave me goosebumps. Many a times I wished I lived in those glorious times. Well, yes, the world is much better now, but you know- just to know how it might have been back then. 

         

         To walk through the burning white marble of the Taj and the ruined sandstone city of Fatehpur Sikri in Agra, to feel tall out of joy before the Qutb Minar, to gasp out of awe before the magnificent marble throne of emperor Shajahan at the Red fort and to sit peacefully inside the astonishingly symmetrical chamber where Humayun is buried, were experiences of a lifetime for a history buff like me. To touch the buildings and to walk around them gave me a priceless feeling of happiness; one that you experience when you get intensely close to the most cherished wish of yours!

               

                        Travelling in the metro, walking through the subway and purchasing things at really low prices were all new experiences for me and my cousin who were visiting Delhi for the first time. Getting really good stuff, be it clothes, shoes or selfie sticks for a hundred rupees or two was something that surprised the two of us very much. Back in Kerala, we hardly got anything good that costed less than at least three hundred rupees. But at the same time, eating food did cost a lot. A thousand rupees for 2 Biriyanis and a mutton curry is too much for a family coming from Kerala who gets the same but tastier food for less than five hundred rupees. This is just one among the few contrasts that we noticed in this bustling metropolitan city.

                         As we visited Fatehpur Sikri in Agra, we were surrounded by young boys, aged nine and ten, who made up poems and recited them for a living. It was something that really made us astounded. These boys, in return for the five or ten rupees that we gave them, made up poems about us, on how generous and good we were. One young genius, that’s how I prefer to call them, even sang very subtly that my father was no less than the great Salman Khan himself! Many of these young boys spoke English very well. There was one young man of seven or eight who blew our minds with his fluent and grammatically correct English which had a better accent than many educated adults.

                         

                     We saw more young boys and girls in the streets of Delhi, who sold bangles, bags, toys and flowers for a living. Young though they were, in their faces we could see a maturity beyond their age. At an age when they ought to be in school enjoying their childhood under the security of a home, these kids were happily toiling their lives day in and day out, amidst the busy traffic and the crowd of Delhi. Coming from a State where we hardly find children working, this was indeed a disturbing sight to witness. This I call the second striking contrast of Delhi.

              A place of great educational institutions and studious people, a significant proportion of the children that one might find in Delhi are working to make both ends meet. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think that many of them also don’t attend schools. Moreover what equally disturbs me is how the vast majority of the population of Delhi shrugs these young kids off. Maybe they are used to seeing this. But for somebody coming from a place in India which has proved that educating everybody and reducing occurrences of child labour is possible, this is indeed a bitter sight.

                       A place of metros, six lane roads and skyscrapers, Delhi is also a place where you find some of the filthiest of slums. Unclean and stinky, many of these places do not have water or sanitation facilities. When there are high security palacios house and rich people, those in slums live under extremely poor conditions. That was the third contrast of the city of Delhi.

                  A city of contrasts, Delhi is miles away both literally and otherwise from the small state of Kerala that I’ve grown up in. Delhi presented before me, a picture of an India that is entirely different from the India in which I was born and brought up. But this visit to Delhi was indeed an enriching experience for my senses. Delhi has awakened the historical me who has been dormant for quite some time now. It has also fed a few more thoughts into the socially conscious me. It has given me experiences that will keep me occupied for a long time from now. It has also given me memories with my family that I can cherish for long.

Goodbye Delhi, until we meet sometime in the near future!